Cuts in children’s centres mapped

Cuts in children’s centres are proportional to the number of infants living in the most deprived areas in the country.

As the network of centres is divided in 16 localities, the Council considers that depending of the percentage of children living in the 10% most deprived areas of England, the budget reallocation might vary. The criteria is established as it follows:

80% plus children in top 10% most deprived areas = no reduction in allocation

60-79% of children in top 10% most deprived areas = 2.5% reduction in allocation

40 – 59% of children in top 10% most deprived areas = 5% reduction in allocation

30 – 39% of children in top 10% most deprived areas = 7.5% reduction in allocation

0 – 29% of children in top 10% most deprived areas = 12.5% reduction in allocation

This means that, for example, in the locality of Aston/Nechells the budget will remain untouched because 88% of children live in areas considered very deprived. On the other hand, Sutton theywill face a reduction of 12.5% of the allocation as they don’t have many poor areas.

The boundaries used to measure deprivation are called Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) and they are designed to provide statistical information in very small geographic areas.

Running with Scissors sent a FOI request to find out which LSOAs formed the 16 localities used by the Council to organise children’s centres. Mashing this data with the Index of Multiple Deprivation and the 2011 Census we were able to create the following map to visualise the cuts.